Western Standard - Did David Eby call the election too soon？

00:00:00.000 good evening my name is cory morgan i'm a senior columnist with the western standard and you're

00:00:28.800 watching the pipeline i'm sitting in for our publisher derek phildebrand who is indisposed

00:00:34.600 today and can't make it so you'll have to look at my pretty face for the duration of this but

00:00:38.540 don't worry it's not just mine i have three other wise souls here with me i'll start right in the

00:00:44.060 studio with nigel hannaford another senior columnist in the host feels good to be a senior

00:00:49.780 columnist doesn't it sorry yeah junior i don't know i remember when i was a junior surveyor and

00:00:54.860 then i moved up to senior surveyor and i realized that was a whole hell of a lot more work and i

00:00:58.160 missed being in junior actually but what can you do and our news editor dave naylor well i turned

00:01:03.940 60 last month so i guess i am a senior we're getting there yeah getting there get cheaper

00:01:08.260 haircuts and get a pension now oh there you go so much to look forward to exactly and uh dad

00:01:13.100 some youth to the mix and everything we have our overworked and beleaguered reporter in british

00:01:19.060 columbia the land of the insane alex zolton how's it going out there oh it's insane yeah

00:01:25.180 I see. It looks like you're hunkered in a bunker there. You're fearful of the crazed politicos

00:01:32.640 coming after you as you keep breaking things before they can get on them. 0.99

00:01:37.160 Yeah, hiding from both sides of the political spectrum because they're both insane.

00:01:41.660 Well, if they're both after you, it means you must be doing things right. So we'll get right

00:01:46.440 into that since we got you there. And you do have so much to do. Last week, an election wasn't in

00:01:53.160 the cards, but the Conservative Party was busy cutting itself to shreds. There's been a few

00:01:58.040 developments since then. Maybe bring us a little up to date. What the hell happened?

00:02:03.020 Sure. Do you want me to discuss how they shred themselves to pieces first, or do you want me to

00:02:08.340 talk about the election? We'll talk about the election. We've been talking about them shredding

00:02:11.840 for quite some time, so the election's been kind of a new development. Yeah, so because the election

00:02:17.440 is fairly new. I'll offer a bit of a 10,000 foot perspective on how provincial elections in BC

00:02:23.660 work, generally speaking. So in BC, there tends to be three groups of voters. Broadly speaking,

00:02:30.740 there's no information voters, low information voters, and high information voters. So low

00:02:36.520 information voters are, well, let's start with no information voters. They're the smallest group

00:02:41.200 because I'm sure, as is easy to imagine, no information voters typically don't vote.

00:02:45.580 but those who do typically vote just based off of their vague perceptions of what the political

00:02:52.320 party's names stand for low information voters are another group that i would generally describe

00:02:58.500 as a community group voter so these are union members who will vote based off of what their

00:03:03.960 union tells them to do or ethnic voting blocs that vote based off of what their community leaders

00:03:08.860 tell them what to do and then there's high information voters which is the smallest group

00:03:13.560 but they're the most influential. So these people are academics, politicians themselves,

00:03:18.980 reporters, journalists, and public sector employees who have a pretty good line of sight

00:03:24.700 on the competency of the government because they work in the government. So the BCNDP

00:03:30.100 traditionally has been very, very successful because they've been able to court and curry

00:03:34.840 favor with all three of these groups. This time around, it's looking like that might not be

00:03:40.960 as easy to pull off?

00:03:43.580 And I can kind of go into why, if you'd like.

00:03:46.520 Well, we'll go into a little more of that as we go.

00:03:48.540 Okay, so people know it was suddenly called by David Eby

00:03:52.200 two years early.

00:03:53.940 It is typically a fixed date, but Saturday elections BC holds.

00:03:57.000 I think that's actually not a bad idea, in my view.

00:03:59.940 But boy, this, and we'll get into more of that with Alex as well.

00:04:03.980 Nigel, not everybody, I mean, this was clearly an opportunistic election call.

00:04:08.000 I mean, this was for the sake of, because of disarray on the opposition side,

00:04:12.240 he thought, well, let's just snap this open two years early and get it done while we can.

00:04:17.160 But how do you think that that might not turn out as well as he hopes?

00:04:19.980 Well, it's so transparently cynical that even low-information voters are likely to see through that one

00:04:26.360 without needing to have it explained to them.

00:04:29.680 Everybody thought that having fixed election dates legislated was a good idea

00:04:34.380 because it lent some predictability to things.

00:04:38.000 and then we were warned at the time because i was there when they did this

00:04:42.880 uh and i said well don't forget they can always it's only there by legislation they can just as

00:04:47.600 easily uh legislate it away again and everybody said well it's worth a try well here we are

00:04:53.600 they've legislated it away you know and uh broken their own rules if you want to put it that way

00:05:00.800 and people were saying you know it's kind of expensive to have an election and you guys are 0.83

00:05:04.880 are fools anyway you're giving away here's where i think they may run into problems that they 0.93

00:05:11.360 have not imagined a lot of people are very concerned about the court decision 0.99

00:05:16.960 last year involving big areas of richmond which were claimed by a indigenous band the court agreed

00:05:25.280 with them and so now you have this aboriginal title as an overlay to your fee simple property

00:05:32.080 ownership. In the particular affected area, as of last week, there hadn't been a house sold in that

00:05:39.460 area. People were too scared to buy them, and the thought is that if they can do it in Richmond,

00:05:47.780 they can do it anywhere in the unceded part of British Columbia. That wouldn't be the case in

00:05:52.740 the part up north, which is covered by treaty, but anywhere else in BC, you know, your home is not

00:05:58.420 is not necessarily your counsel, you could find that you have an aboriginal title slid in over the top,

00:06:06.520 and your property values go to hell, and your liquidity, the ability to borrow against your house,

00:06:13.660 all kinds of things could go wrong.

00:06:15.540 And I suspect that that issue will come back to bite Mr. Eby,

00:06:21.160 because he has actually been quietly supportive of what the court has been doing.

00:06:25.660 I think David Eby will rue the day that he called the election.

00:06:29.660 I think the people of British Columbia, he somehow is okay doing in the polls despite the horrific work of his government.

00:06:40.640 But I think there's going to be enough.

00:06:41.820 Enough is enough, voters are going to say, and I don't see him getting another majority.

00:06:48.000 I mean, I sit to be corrected, but it is one of the most callous things I've ever seen in politics.

00:06:54.840 Well, he always looks like a man who rues the day he even gets out of bed.

00:06:57.620 He's the most sour-looking politician I've ever seen.

00:07:01.380 I guess you press just before I can even start watching him up there.

00:07:04.300 No, I will give him credit.

00:07:05.540 He had a press conference today in Surrey, and he smiled.

00:07:09.440 Oh, well, they must have injected him.

00:07:11.920 Must have injected him with somebody tickling him or something.

00:07:14.640 Well, it's going to be quite a grind of closer to five weeks, I guess, this campaign.

00:07:20.120 So getting back to you, Alex, and the Conservatives.

00:07:23.880 I mean, the NDP are vulnerable.

00:07:27.320 I mean, Rustad took a party that was slapped together exceedingly quickly and came within a hair's breadth of unseating the incumbent NDP in the last election.

00:07:36.260 So it's not beyond conceiving that the Conservatives can throw it all together and come up with a winning vote in five weeks.

00:07:44.840 You were saying that this is actually sort of unified a lot of them.

00:07:49.020 Well, absolutely.

00:07:49.940 And then the other really strange thing that happened is all of this chaos and infighting amongst the B.C. conservatives led to the rise of Lorne Dirksen as the party leader.

00:07:58.540 And Lorne Dirksen is not the mega regional manager that David Eby was preparing for battle with.

00:08:03.080 He's a moderate centrist and very well liked on both sides of the House and respected.

00:08:08.620 The B.C. NDP MLAs that I've spoken to even say that they have quite a high regard for Lorne Dirksen.

00:08:14.200 And so that's going to be a really tricky thing for David Eby to run against him as a Trump adjacent when that simply doesn't align with the facts.

00:08:24.200 Alex, what's the status of Finley?

00:08:27.720 Finley has been exiled from the party, along with her husband.

00:08:31.000 So they were told on Monday in a caucus meeting that neither were allowed to run for the party in the upcoming election.

00:08:37.240 Brent Chapman responded by saying that he was moving to 1BC and Finley's status remains unconfirmed at this time.

00:08:44.200 And then there's other variables bouncing around out there. Dallas Brody, for example, as well as Center BC is another one that's on the go. I mean, a lot of people came home to the Conservative Party, I guess you could say, but it doesn't mean that those other parties have stopped existing. They could still have an impact here.

00:09:02.120 Yeah, I mean, certainly 1BC could have an impact on the right.

00:09:05.780 I question how big of an impact they could have simply based off of the number of candidates that they're set to run.

00:09:14.200 Even with the addition of Brent Chapman, I think they only have maybe five or six candidates that I can imagine being on the ballots throughout the 93 ridings in BC.

00:09:24.600 center bc is an interesting factor in this election in the sense that i think that they

00:09:31.440 present a bigger vote split on the left than they do on the right they're really more of a leftist

00:09:36.420 party disguised as a centrist party and if you add in the factor of the bc greens who have a fairly

00:09:43.660 formidable party leader in emily lowen i think that the ndp are in serious trouble here i think

00:09:49.600 They made a giant mistake.

00:09:51.740 Well, it looks like maybe, I mean, they tried for a big tent.

00:09:54.880 I mean, that's the issue conservatives have.

00:09:56.620 When you try to do this, the only winning formula you can get, you're bringing people.

00:09:59.840 Because that conservative party had some people pretty far over on the spectrum on either side.

00:10:03.600 And unfortunately, the tent started ripping apart.

00:10:07.020 AB's kind of sewed it together for the moment on their behalf.

00:10:09.840 I mean, Dave, do you think this can hold for five weeks?

00:10:12.360 Can they keep it together?

00:10:13.200 It's a long campaign and it's, you know, he's running on the exact same thing that Mark Carney did, you know, the elbows up to Donald Trump and he was successful for Carney, remains to be seen by Eby. I don't think he's got the, certainly the charisma that Mark Carney possesses, but five weeks is a long time. And as they say, a day in politics, anything can happen.

00:10:38.580 I'm just playing with the fact that you attributed charisma to Mark Carney.

00:10:43.460 Well, compared to David Eby, he looks very lively.

00:10:46.760 Well, yes, he does, but that's...

00:10:49.760 Now, the NDP are so bad and have done such damage in B.C. that if there is even a glimmer

00:10:59.320 of a hope on the other side, my sense is the people will rally to it.

00:11:05.760 The difficulties in the Conservative Party, if I read or report it correctly, were just

00:11:12.200 about entirely personal.

00:11:14.760 And therefore, with that personal issue out of the way, for heaven's sake, can they please

00:11:22.280 get along for five weeks, long enough to, you know, principles are wonderful, and we've

00:11:27.520 got a few of them ourselves, but heavens above, one principle that should be foremost is getting

00:11:33.480 rid of that NDP government, which has failed in so many ways. And Alex, you've had some heavyweights

00:11:39.720 from the NDP announced in the last 24 hours they're not running again. Yeah, so this is another

00:11:44.960 indication that the NDP are maybe not in as strong a position as they thought they would be upon the

00:11:49.900 writ drop. So four senior cabinet ministers have resigned overall. They're saying they're not

00:11:54.720 running for re-election since Monday. That would include Lana Poppin. She was the agricultural

00:11:59.460 role minister. Ravi Kalon, he was the health minister. He was largely considered the best

00:12:05.720 candidate to replace David Eby when it looked like he was dead in the water five months ago.

00:12:10.260 And then two more, Brenda Bailey, the finance minister. And another one that escapes me right

00:12:14.880 now, you have to understand there's a whole bunch of moving pieces. So it's sometimes hard to keep

00:12:18.480 track of. The finance minister that ran up a $13 billion deficit. Yeah, I mean, she was already

00:12:25.860 stepping down from the finance minister role um due to um she had cancer so she was receiving

00:12:31.300 medical um stuff so yeah that one doesn't seem terribly surprising to me the ravi calon one was

00:12:38.740 very shocking um people on the ndp side told me that even they didn't anticipate that happening

00:12:44.660 so alex can i just ask you apart from donald trump what are the big issues for british columbians

00:12:51.620 well that's the thing right is that the bc ndp don't really have anything to run on

00:12:55.620 in terms of their own record specifically when it comes to industries like the forestry industry

00:13:01.380 he's trying to blame all of the woes of that industry on Donald Trump in order to capture

00:13:05.820 that low information voter block that I was just referring to and people who are in the forestry

00:13:11.400 industry and who belong to unions related to that industry know that the industry has been

00:13:15.040 struggling long before Donald Trump came along for a whole bunch of different reasons and so it's

00:13:20.320 going to be very very difficult for him to convince those individuals as well as individuals who you

00:13:25.600 or struggling with lack of access to health care or declining learning outcomes for their kids.

00:13:32.220 And the most baffling thing about British Columbia is that we have one of the largest

00:13:36.020 downloads of any subnational economy in the world, and we have some of the worst services.

00:13:40.940 So even the no information voter who just votes based off of their perception of the

00:13:45.100 political party on the ballot, along with the question of are things around me getting better,

00:13:49.600 even they're going to have a hard time believing that Donald Trump is responsible for, you know,

00:13:53.260 their neighbor's house burning down or the emergency room not being open.

00:13:57.820 So, I mean, this must have caught a lot of NDP MLAs flat-footed. I can see where that's a bit

00:14:02.840 of disarray. They thought they had two more years. I don't know how much constituency work they've

00:14:06.320 been doing to be prepared for a general election all of a sudden, and they can't necessarily be

00:14:11.260 thrilled with this. As you said, some perhaps are just saying, you know what, I'm getting out now.

00:14:15.680 But I'm also wondering... I was just going to add, yeah, on that note,

00:14:19.540 in terms of the operations and the mechanism of the election itself, a lot of the high information

00:14:24.160 voters, particularly public sector employees, which have always been the NDP's strongest voting

00:14:29.600 block, they are pissed because they asked him not to run this election back to back with the civic

00:14:35.700 election. It strains all of the resources. It's a giant waste of money. There's no justification

00:14:40.520 for Evie calling the election, canceling the Abbotsford Mission by election, which was already

00:14:44.560 in progress. That cost taxpayers a million dollars. And so nobody is happy with the BCNDP

00:14:49.900 in their decision to do this. And so he has alienated virtually everybody in all three of

00:14:55.660 those blocks. It's a disaster, frankly, for him. Yeah, well, and then the voters on the ground,

00:15:01.420 I mean, I know it's hard to predict, but we saw things like in Calgary-Shaw, there was an upset.

00:15:05.800 My hypothesis has been that quite often when conservatives get upset, they might not vote

00:15:09.620 for the other party, but they'll stay home.

00:15:12.000 And I could see it with a lot of, I mean, just again, as Nigel put it, you know, the

00:15:16.040 cynicism of this whole exercise has really got to have soured a lot of people.

00:15:20.720 They might not be able to hold their nose and vote conservative, but I suspect the NDP

00:15:24.120 are going to have a hard time getting their base out in this one as well.

00:15:27.860 Yeah.

00:15:28.020 And then you've got this really strange influencer factor as well.

00:15:30.800 So there's a whole bunch of folks who have a very wide reach online who are quite upset

00:15:35.840 about, and understandably so, about Finley being kicked out as leader, given that she was the

00:15:41.000 leader chosen by the membership. And so they're making a rallying call, as I understand it,

00:15:46.220 for people to move over to 1BC on the perception that the Conservative Party of BC is not conservative

00:15:51.820 enough. Unwittingly, I think that that's actually going to be an optics win for the BC Conservatives

00:15:57.460 in a province where the biggest criticism against the Conservatives is often that they're too far

00:16:01.720 right. People here are very progressive. They're very centrist. And so if they hear loud voices

00:16:06.300 saying that the Conservatives aren't conservative enough, that may actually convince some of these

00:16:11.120 moderate centrists to vote for them. Well, it's going to be quite a race to watch. We're just in

00:16:17.060 the first couple days of it. I hope you've restocked on your bulk Red Bulls there. I'm

00:16:22.040 going to keep up with it. We're going to be looking forward to a lot more updates out of you.

00:16:25.740 Maybe before we let you go, because I know you've got a lot to do, what are a few things we got to

00:16:29.840 look forward to what are you working on right now and what are some more things you might want to

00:16:33.060 leave people with well speaking of energy drinks jackson lawyer colleague at the western standard

00:16:37.860 came up with a great idea he said i should apply for a sponsorship with the west coast energy drink

00:16:42.500 brand so i sent a request to beaver buzz so hoping they get back to me maybe i can earn a

00:16:48.420 bit of a side gig there all right well it's a great name if well i could read a few things

00:16:55.640 into that name actually but uh i'll spare the audience all right well uh thanks a lot for

00:17:04.600 for joining us today and then for all that constant content you've been putting out out in bc you're

00:17:08.920 gonna have your work cut out for you and uh we look forward to talking to you again soon i'm sure

00:17:12.440 there's gonna be a lot of updates to come oh well thank you for having me i'm a big poly nerd so

00:17:16.920 this is a dream job and i'm having a great time with it believe it or not right on i'm glad you're

00:17:21.720 enjoying it. We are enjoying reading what you're coming up with. And I just be, you know, so I'll

00:17:25.520 let you go. And I just kind of remind the viewers, we've got an opportunity right now. The paywall

00:17:29.640 is down. You can read Alex's stuff, my stuff, everybody's stuff without reaching into your

00:17:35.280 pocket for it. So I really encourage BC viewers and Alberta viewers who are interested. This is

00:17:38.940 the time. Get out of the Western Standard and watch what's going on because it is a hornet's

00:17:42.120 nest. Let Alex do all the hard work and encapsulate it to try and figure out what's going on over

00:17:46.640 there. All right, let's move on to the next nice easy one. Let's talk about temporary migrants

00:17:53.820 paying for their own health care. It's been on the ballot for a while, but it made the news 1.00

00:17:58.280 finally in the referendum as Premier Smith sort of got a little more specific on what that might

00:18:02.800 mean. You know, Corey, I often wonder how these things even get to be controversial.

00:18:08.800 If you were to leave us behind and go and take a job in another country and you didn't line up 1.00

00:18:14.800 what you're going to do about health care first everybody would say you're an idiot now you know 0.99

00:18:19.680 people like us do that anyways well no they no they don't they've got other names but it's not 1.00

00:18:24.800 idiot is seldom what i hear but look i mean if you would go with a company or something like

00:18:29.680 that they take care of your health care needs for you but if you don't if you're just hopping the 1.00

00:18:36.160 border and showing up what is the argument that just because you're there that you should receive

00:18:43.360 health care at somebody else's expense. I don't think we expect that, although obviously other

00:18:49.680 people do and have been encouraged to. But thank goodness that the premier is saying, well,

00:18:56.960 not only is that fundamentally flawed at a logical level, but also on a purely practical basis,

00:19:03.280 if the federal government has lost control of its own immigration system, 0.81

00:19:07.360 and they're just shoveling newcomers with very few qualifications and papers out into the 0.50

00:19:13.680 countryside hoping that they'll find something somewhere that's not actually an obligation

00:19:18.560 on the alberta taxpayers or for that matter or the saskatchewan taxpayers or the ontario taxpayers

00:19:24.640 or anyone else um obviously we're not not going to let somebody bleed to death in the street

00:19:30.880 that's just not who we are but the idea that somehow there should be an expectation around

00:19:35.920 the world if you could just make it to canada after that they'll put your kids in school they'll pay

00:19:40.880 for your health bills they'll feed you if you destitute find you a place to live put you up in

00:19:45.440 a decent hotel until they do why why should the rest of the world be able to uh to to take that

00:19:50.880 for granted so they uh bless the government of alberta for at least saying well we're not

00:19:58.320 completely heartless but we are heartless enough to say that you better be here with a good reason

00:20:05.920 Um, or, uh, an approved Alberta status.

00:20:10.000 Yeah.

00:20:10.300 I think it's not an unreasonable ask.

00:20:12.120 And actually I've got a parallel with, I worked for a few years on an L1 visa down in the United States.

00:20:16.740 And before I would cross that border, I purchased private insurance in case something catastrophic should happen.

00:20:21.800 I mean, they wouldn't turn me away at a hospital if it did, but I could find myself with a six finger bill when I got home if I didn't do such.

00:20:27.220 And I didn't think that was unreasonable for me going down.

00:20:29.500 I knew the rules heading in there.

00:20:31.960 They have-

00:20:32.160 You get insurance, you're just going down for a weekend then.

00:20:34.360 Yes.

00:20:34.680 Yeah, we do now as we're getting a little older too, you just never know what might happen.

00:20:38.240 But Canada is under a universal system, which I guess maybe some people see it as

00:20:41.920 a different obligation that kind of comes back to that feeling or think some people

00:20:46.660 feel that, David, like the second somebody sets foot in Canada, they're, they're fully

00:20:51.160 entitled to the same rights and entitlements.

00:20:55.960 It wasn't that long ago we were paying healthcare premiums, right?

00:20:59.780 So I don't think it's an unreasonable policy. 1.00

00:21:03.300 I question how it's going to be enforced, you know, as Nigel said, a lot of these sort of, you know, people on visas, students, they come here, they have no training, they have no education. 1.00

00:21:15.520 How are they going to get a job? 1.00

00:21:16.560 How are they going to be able to afford $1,900 or $1,200 or whatever they charge?

00:21:22.020 That's something to clarify too.

00:21:23.340 It's not like Premier Smith was saying we're going to leave them all out uncovered and unable to get care or anything.

00:21:28.540 They're just saying, well, they're going to have to pay a premium out of pocket while they're here to offset some of those costs.

00:21:34.860 A 19-year-old may have zero impact on the health care budget.

00:21:40.220 A 75-year-old may be costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

00:21:44.060 So it's hard to put a single figure on it.

00:21:47.640 Should the 75-year-old be paying way more than the 19-year-old?

00:21:52.060 I think it's one of the questions that's going to pass with a big majority.

00:21:56.060 Yeah, and I hope it does.

00:21:57.560 And I don't mean to sound like that changing my opinion,

00:22:00.020 but I think we should acknowledge that the other side of this argument would be that,

00:22:05.540 and it's not got to do with kindness and mercy,

00:22:08.540 you're actually bringing people in, in some cases, who you want.

00:22:12.820 I mean, let's say you're taking a health care worker from a different part of the world.

00:22:17.640 Are you then going to say, well, we want you to go to work,

00:22:21.580 but at the same time we're not going to give you any health care benefits?

00:22:24.880 But that's where this idea of the Alberta-approved status comes, and that gives the provincial government a lot of leeway to decide who actually they do want and who they don't.

00:22:36.040 If you're basically coming in with nothing to offer, well, what are you doing here?

00:22:41.080 And that's what Smith wants. He wants Alberta to have control over immigration, same way Quebec does.

00:22:47.420 You know, we're not asking for anything that Quebec doesn't have already.

00:22:51.440 In Ontario and Manitoba, when it comes to education, it's still a similar concept. 0.72

00:22:55.520 Don't fund a number of things in the public education system for temporary citizens that

00:23:01.360 are funded for regular citizens. But this kind of comes back to a lot of what seems to happen in

00:23:04.800 Canada too, though. When other provinces do it, they're exerting their provincial right. When

00:23:09.120 Alberta does these things, we're assholes. And that's some of the framing that's happening right 1.00

00:23:13.360 now. You know, those selfish Albertans, those nasty Albertans. 1.00

00:23:15.680 Yeah, well, I mean, what people use that argument will say 0.99

00:23:18.800 the kids didn't choose their parents and if their parents turn out to be

00:23:25.600 illegal aliens you know well then we still got to look after the kids don't we and 0.92

00:23:30.640 i think well maybe maybe actually we need to ship everybody back that's just and it's another

00:23:35.600 excuse for the uh the mainstream media talking heads down east to call albertans racist yeah

00:23:40.960 and i mean it is this apply i mean predominantly the ones coming on temporary visas are are not

00:23:45.680 white people fair enough but we're talking about temporary migrants it could be anybody of any race

00:23:50.880 it could be for somebody from sweden for all we know i think something that needs a lot of

00:23:54.240 clarification in this is as the opponents try to smear the the premier in the province is that it's

00:23:59.440 temporary we're not talking about the the people who came here through proper channels are looking

00:24:03.440 to settle as permanent uh immigrants we're not talking about permanent citizens who are here

00:24:07.920 we're talking about people here on temporary visas assuming they came in on those even you

00:24:13.200 You know, the kind of people who would make the argument that we should pay everything for everybody, whoever they are, wherever they came from, make no connection between the cost of doing that and what they pay in taxes.

00:24:26.300 And it comes out of the public purse.

00:24:28.700 Somebody is paying, there is real money.

00:24:31.200 Who do you want to deploy it to when we have problems of our own?

00:24:35.620 So that's put me down for a tight fist.

00:24:39.920 But I do recognize that there are some things we're going to have to take care of as we tighten our fist.

00:24:47.780 Yeah, well, it's sort of a provincial way, though, that we can get around.

00:24:50.140 I mean, it's a federal thing.

00:24:51.520 They decide how many immigrants are going to come in.

00:24:53.600 It's a federal authority, federal bureaucrats that you do your applications through and everything.

00:24:58.000 The provinces can, you know, ask and lobby for as much as they can, but there's not much they can do.

00:25:04.360 But something Premier Smith's doing is saying, well, we can't stop them,

00:25:07.080 but we don't have to make sure that the welcome mat is here or that the buffet is all laid out. 0.99

00:25:12.220 This could lead to some of these temporary immigrants moving into other provinces.

00:25:15.720 Now, how is that going to...

00:25:17.780 Well, there's new stats out today shows Alberta is growing up three times the rate of the rest of the country.

00:25:24.440 So 600,000 people in five years, is it?

00:25:27.280 Something like that, yeah.

00:25:29.040 That's a crazy number.

00:25:30.040 At some point, we're going to have to put up the no vacancy sign.

00:25:32.160 Yeah, that's a lot of hospital beds and school places to find.

00:25:35.360 Well, and for some who are coming here, if they are, you know, professionals or if they've got good trades or so on, paying a $1,600, $1,900 premium over the course of a year isn't beyond their ability to do so.

00:25:48.680 Well, the thing is, Corey, if they're that well qualified, they've probably got somebody already paying the bill for them.

00:25:53.880 Well, or again, or maybe they're looking to become permanent residents.

00:25:57.420 You take a contract with a major oil company coming from somewhere else.

00:26:01.300 They say, well, what do I do if my kids get sick?

00:26:03.300 They say, oh, don't worry, we've got that covered. 0.98

00:26:04.720 Yeah, but if you're an immigrant from the Philippines doing a housekeeping job or, you know, a hospital orderly, that's a good chunk of change. 0.99

00:26:13.140 Sure.

00:26:13.580 I mean, that was something that was, because Smith was talking about often companies will take these premiums and pay the bills.

00:26:19.560 And that's what my favorite business expert, Debra Yedlin, was complaining about, saying this would put an unnecessary expense upon businesses.

00:26:28.420 But again, if you're going to import temporary labor, you expect to pay some premiums.

00:26:33.200 Yeah.

00:26:33.580 Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that's kept the auto industry in Ontario competitive because we have, you know, publicly funded health care.

00:26:44.020 Those workers use it in the United States just a few miles over the river there.

00:26:49.400 That's the cost of the companies.

00:26:51.160 So you bet that health care is a powerful, powerful gift.

00:26:56.500 So I just wonder, you know, Premier Smith's putting your neck out on this, but I'm sure other premiers are kind of watching because we're not alone with this. 0.99

00:27:02.040 We're getting more immigrants into Alberta than any other province, but there's still, there's pressures on the system and there's issues with these diploma mills and some of the, I mean, that's what people really, the problem is about is it's the ones who are not really here to contribute, make a life and move forward. 0.89

00:27:16.440 There are often many who are taking advantage of the system, but this could start a domino effect for other provinces to say, you know what, she got away with it. 0.99

00:27:23.980 Let's move on to see our policies later.

00:27:25.540 look if i was in some third world country and i had enough uh going for me that i could at least

00:27:29.700 get out and enroll in a diploma mill show up for one lesson and then go and get a job at tim hortons

00:27:36.980 and and work and work and share a house with six other people and start to get ahead yeah i'd

00:27:41.620 probably do that too but at the same time the person who's doing that is um taking a lot of

00:27:50.340 A lot of things for granted in the host country.

00:27:52.680 What do you think, Bill?

00:27:53.840 As I said, you know, the hospital wait times aren't getting any shorter, right?

00:27:57.780 And that's just strictly because of so many newcomers, so many newcomers.

00:28:02.300 And I think of the poor teachers that are stuck with several kids in their classroom 1.00

00:28:08.700 that don't speak English, you know, just because of the migrant boom. 1.00

00:28:13.020 So there is a cost in Albertans are paying it right now. 1.00

00:28:17.380 And I think you're right.

00:28:18.140 I think other provinces are going to keep an eye on it.

00:28:19.940 And if we're successful, they'll, they'll adopt it.

00:28:23.460 That's it.

00:28:23.920 I mean, the term they like using is classroom complexity.

00:28:26.260 Yes.

00:28:26.460 But the reality is that if you've got a classroom full 1.00

00:28:28.780 of English or second language kids in there, it'll be a challenge. 1.00

00:28:32.180 I, I, again, I think it'd be all right for the opportunity

00:28:35.120 if people are coming and the kids can learn and grow,

00:28:36.860 but people here already shouldn't have to foot that bill.

00:28:40.040 I think if we're bringing families over too, we're not

00:28:42.080 talking about temporary foreign workers.

00:28:44.080 I mean, when I was working in the States on my visa, 0.65

00:28:45.800 I couldn't bring the rest over while I was at it.

00:28:48.620 It was just me.

00:28:49.620 How are we ending up with families on temporary workers here in the first place?

00:28:54.120 I mean, this is supposed to be somebody coming to make some bucks, fill a void

00:28:56.400 and going back home.

00:28:58.160 Doesn't work that way in real life though, does it?

00:28:59.860 No, it doesn't seem to.

00:29:01.560 Uh, but I mean, that, that, that's where it exposes, I think something,

00:29:04.560 maybe this could encourage Ottawa to change a few things too.

00:29:06.800 Cause our problem also is it's legislative, it's procedural.

00:29:10.040 I mean, we're not necessarily vetting correctly to have people in the roles we

00:29:14.180 need or following through when they're finished with their visa and getting them 0.84

00:29:17.880 the hell out or having them apply to be here permanently. 0.99

00:29:20.700 Sure.

00:29:20.960 As soon as their visa ends, they just disappear into the system, right?

00:29:23.720 And, uh, border services, uh, you know, it's lost control.

00:29:26.960 Tens of thousands of people are here.

00:29:28.800 They have no idea where they are.

00:29:30.140 Or they disappear south of the border and that presents a security risk. 0.98

00:29:33.820 And there's a certain orange gentleman who's not terribly happy when we give him 0.99

00:29:36.700 any excuse to batter at us. 0.99

00:29:38.240 And that's.

00:29:38.580 Which he did today.

00:29:39.500 He said, uh, Canada is going to be a disaster because of, uh, uh, you know,

00:29:44.380 uh, no walls, no, uh, no immigration policy.

00:29:48.080 And in fairness, as you said, you know, don't give him the low

00:29:51.700 hanging fruit to hit cause he's going to hit it.

00:29:53.540 Yeah. 0.99

00:29:54.140 I mean, we, we have an easier means to control our immigration. 0.98

00:29:57.660 Most of them are coming by plane. 0.89

00:29:58.840 They're coming through a process that we've, uh, a poorly drafted process,

00:30:02.960 but a way, I mean, we're not getting, we don't have a river on our

00:30:05.080 south end that people can wade across that are coming.

00:30:07.720 I mean, we do have some people coming across the American to Canadian border,

00:30:10.480 but they're rarely Americans.

00:30:11.620 There are people who have leapfrogging from other areas. 0.59

00:30:15.220 We can control the ones coming in by air and we aren't doing it effectively.

00:30:22.060 Mr.

00:30:22.360 Trump was probably reading one of your columns.

00:30:24.400 Oh, perhaps.

00:30:25.240 I don't know.

00:30:25.480 He blocked me on Twitter, but some eight years ago.

00:30:28.380 Yeah, it was over to McCain thing.

00:30:30.580 Yeah, that was a kind of a badge and a, and a shame at the same time when

00:30:34.900 that happened, but I, so I doubt he's reading my columns, but oh, who knows?

00:30:39.900 It's a crazy world as it is.

00:30:41.240 Okay, we'll move along to some nice sane domestic politics.

00:30:45.000 The referendum, the independence thing.

00:30:46.820 We're in the home stretch of what's been, I think,

00:30:49.840 one of the longest campaigns we've ever endured.

00:30:53.900 Yeah, there was some interesting quotes this week

00:30:56.300 from Premier Smith and the budget boss, Nixon.

00:31:02.340 The figure has been bandied around that the number of people

00:31:07.640 voting for independence has sort of plateaued at 30%.

00:31:10.900 And Daniel Smith said, you know, that's a shocking number to her.

00:31:16.400 And that number of people who have lost faith in Canada shows that we've got a big problem.

00:31:21.820 And she's right.

00:31:23.200 But interestingly, her budget man, Nixon, came out and said, you know, he wouldn't be surprised if it's single digit support when it comes to voting day.

00:31:34.260 So I think he may be underestimating it.

00:31:36.760 And I think Smith is overestimating.

00:31:39.240 I think it'll come in around 20%.

00:31:41.720 I think there's a good deal of wishful thinking going on,

00:31:44.460 especially with Mr. Nixon,

00:31:45.440 because if it was only 10%,

00:31:47.000 we can move on to something else.

00:31:49.980 So the same would be true for the premier

00:31:53.040 if there is a disruptive separatist element 0.71

00:31:56.280 within her own caucus

00:31:57.400 and indeed within her own cabinet,

00:31:59.780 which is alleged not to be so,

00:32:01.840 but you just never know.

00:32:04.240 Well, if there was no support for it,

00:32:06.600 what a happy day that would be.

00:32:07.860 Well, those separatists are about, I can warn you.

00:32:10.180 They could be in the room with you right now.

00:32:12.380 And one month from the referendum and Smith announces the cut in the gas tax.

00:32:17.860 Yep.

00:32:18.080 You know, very, almost a campaign type announcement.

00:32:23.360 So that's going to save Albertans 13 cents or later at the time when they need it most.

00:32:27.680 And it's long overdue.

00:32:28.880 Should have been done months ago instead of that $100 check.

00:32:32.720 Yeah, well, there's going to be, I'm sure, a few more campaign shoes to drop as things move ahead.

00:32:36.980 I mean, looking at that polling, the way I look at it, I haven't seen a groundswell

00:32:41.380 making me confident that there's going to be something over that 50%.

00:32:44.980 But I really felt, you know, in working in this for this last couple of months,

00:32:48.660 a solidification of that 30 that's there though.

00:32:51.620 I don't know if it's going to drop to 20.

00:32:53.220 I think that 30 has become solid.

00:32:55.860 It's just whether or not they've been able to be effective

00:32:58.180 for a mushy middle to bring in the message for further.

00:33:01.380 Tory, it's going to be 30% of the people who show up.

00:33:03.940 if you actually if everybody was obliged to put their put their thumbprint on yes or no i dare

00:33:11.940 say that it would be a different number well the thing that's very obvious about the pro-independence

00:33:18.560 faction which you are they are motivated they are keen they are going to be there they will get off

00:33:25.260 their hospital bed and go in there and vote and be returned by ambulance to whence they came

00:33:32.240 They're that keen.

00:33:33.700 So on the other hand, whatever that number does turn out to be, I think that's pretty

00:33:38.700 much the high watermark for separative support.

00:33:42.160 That's time.

00:33:42.960 I mean, I was speaking to another interviewer the other day and, you know, talking about

00:33:47.740 when I led the Alberta United's party way back in 2000.

00:33:50.300 And had we held a referendum at that time, I bet we would have been lucky to hit 10.

00:33:55.020 Today we are.

00:33:55.960 I think, you know, people can, they're not being unreasonable to think that a 30% result

00:34:00.260 is very possible or more.

00:34:01.960 So, I mean, this is something that has really grown, though, and that can't be denied.

00:34:05.380 Do you think that there's still that thought that let's go and vote yes just to send a message to Ottawa?

00:34:11.340 Or is it some of the things that have been developing recently for Mr. Carney, you know, his powerful anti-Trump rhetoric and his cozying up to Europe and the promises of more and more and things will happen to only give me time?

00:34:25.260 Do you think maybe people are buying that after all?

00:34:29.240 Of course not.

00:34:30.520 Yeah, certainly not.

00:34:31.960 But I mean, it's entrenching.

00:34:34.200 I think some of the people who Carney supported himself

00:34:37.200 is going up in Alberta provincially, though I,

00:34:41.120 you know, he certainly, I think the majority of

00:34:42.620 Albertans still aren't terribly fond of federal

00:34:44.400 liberals, there's something when you have an

00:34:46.020 external enemy, a lot of Albertans aren't too

00:34:47.700 thrilled with president Trump either.

00:34:49.700 And if this campaign makes this a versus, you

00:34:52.300 know, Trump and so on, it's harder for the

00:34:54.060 independence movement.

00:34:55.100 They've been working very hard to distance

00:34:57.100 themselves from that US 51 concept that Mr.

00:34:59.860 wrath kindly brought about to begin with

00:35:02.420 many of the other things that he's done

00:35:03.780 to help the campaign.

00:35:06.300 So we're going to see that push.

00:35:09.560 I mean, from my perspective as a person

00:35:11.700 pushing independence, I want more people

00:35:14.080 to take that send a message attitude.

00:35:15.740 Look at it, it's non-binding, you know,

00:35:17.740 the world won't end if it's over 50%.

00:35:19.600 If you still don't like it and there

00:35:21.860 becomes another referendum a year later,

00:35:23.520 you can vote against it at that time.

00:35:25.460 But at the same time, that mushy middle

00:35:27.040 can be the ones put off if they feel

00:35:29.460 this is something supportive of Trump or selling out sovereignty in general.

00:35:33.920 So what would you say to them, Corey?

00:35:35.720 I mean, to somebody who says, well, I would have voted for independence,

00:35:39.340 but I feel like we've got to stand with the liberals in Ottawa against Mr. Trump.

00:35:45.820 Well, a couple of things.

00:35:46.960 Mr. Trump is still in his waning years.

00:35:50.240 Whether the midterms end up reducing the amount of influence he has in the very near future,

00:35:54.420 or even in the longest, he's only in for two more years.

00:35:57.080 And I would think there's going to hopefully be somebody a little more rational on the trade front by then, though a lot of damage can be done in two years.

00:36:03.780 Fair enough.

00:36:05.600 As well, the status quo hasn't served us terribly well in general anyways.

00:36:12.400 With Trump being a temporary factor, I point to the amount of, you know, 600 and some billion dollars that's gone out with a return on it over the decades.

00:36:21.080 It's, uh, I still, we're not seeing much progress on this pipe.

00:36:26.180 We're still being more talk and more talk and more talk and more talk. 0.98

00:36:29.040 It's still dependent on the Indigenous okay. 0.98

00:36:32.940 It shouldn't have to be. 1.00

00:36:34.180 But it is.

00:36:34.940 But you know, Mr. Carney will not move on that.

00:36:38.260 He's given it a de facto thing and it's dead.

00:36:40.120 Did you see the Liberals send out that bribe this week?

00:36:43.760 Yeah.

00:36:44.160 Champagne offering, was it 2.5 million to every band along the Trans Mountain?

00:36:49.180 Along that, as I said, there are going to be a lot of new escalades out in the, but will it buy support?

00:36:55.220 I mean, that's the thing that we've been learning in Canada, getting universal consent, because that's where it's expanding to, too.

00:37:01.020 And again, legally, there's no bloody need for consent.

00:37:04.760 Politically, it's turning into one, thanks to the pandering.

00:37:07.780 But we're never going to get 100% consent.

00:37:10.020 We're never.

00:37:10.900 So somebody's got to put a foot down and say, this is going, even if not all of you agree.

00:37:15.160 And I haven't seen that courage on Kearney's part.

00:37:16.660 Well, I thought if it's declared a project of national

00:37:19.640 interest, uh, uh, it doesn't need no consent.

00:37:23.200 Well, it doesn't already, but that would be, I guess,

00:37:24.880 one more push towards saying, look, we have to bypass

00:37:27.980 these needs because of how important it is.

00:37:30.380 That's October 1st and that's coming up pretty soon.

00:37:32.440 Interesting timing with the referendum.

00:37:34.820 Uh, if it was solidly declared in the national interest

00:37:37.960 and it really looked like this was going to go, I think

00:37:42.040 that would, uh, for the independence side, negatively

00:37:44.500 impact that mushy middle we're pursuing.

00:37:46.040 I think what really hurt your guys was just a lack of a leader,

00:37:52.700 lack of a, you know, this is the independent spokesman.

00:37:56.900 This is the guy you go to.

00:37:58.020 This is the guy who's done by the, who does the media interviews

00:38:00.980 and stuff like that.

00:38:02.340 When you've got, you know, various leaders spouting various different things

00:38:07.640 about outrageous things, it doesn't do your side any good with credibility.

00:38:13.960 No, that's been a handicap. 0.82

00:38:15.500 I mean, it's a benefit too, because if you had one leader who was a wing nut, 0.99

00:38:18.200 they can bring the whole thing down, whereas you can perhaps quarantine 0.68

00:38:21.620 some of the less savory characters who speak for the movement.

00:38:24.800 But there, there's been a frustration and we kind of need that solidified,

00:38:27.480 consistent messaging right now.

00:38:29.120 I've been doing a whole lot of media lately, ironically, uh, partially

00:38:33.800 because I think they'd like to speak to Keith Wilson, who's often very

00:38:36.480 rational and controlled and gives good messaging, but the guy's nearly

00:38:39.740 impossible to corner.

00:38:40.880 They're there. 0.97

00:38:41.840 He doesn't return orcals.

00:38:42.920 Or whatever and so on.

00:38:44.420 So they, they end up calling me next and well, okay,

00:38:47.060 I'm always there to talk, so I'll give it what I can,

00:38:49.880 but I don't speak for the movement.

00:38:51.100 I can speak for my TPA and my view.

00:38:52.880 There is no, as you said, sense.

00:38:54.160 It's an honor to be in the same room with you, Corey.

00:38:56.740 Thanks, but, but you're right.

00:38:58.600 I mean, the legacy media and others are just desperately seeking at least a

00:39:02.520 singular voice that can kind of speak for things and it doesn't exist.

00:39:05.840 And I believe that is turning into a handicap as the campaign progressed.

00:39:08.900 One thing that ought to help you, I don't feel many great satisfaction at possibly being on closer terms with the European Union.

00:39:20.080 Why are we connecting ourselves to Europe, which is coming apart as we watch? 0.90

00:39:26.460 They can't control their immigration. 0.55

00:39:27.840 They can't control their debt. 0.92

00:39:29.240 They say they want their own arms industry.

00:39:31.180 They don't make Patriot missiles or F-35s.

00:39:33.500 They're spending 40% of their defense money in the United States.

00:39:36.260 I could go on, but, you know, this is the vision for Canada.

00:39:41.160 Another issue that Carney didn't campaign on, such as selling airports.

00:39:46.180 Absolutely ludicrous.

00:39:47.600 He's turned the prime ministership into a dictatorship, 0.66

00:39:51.260 was back in the House of Commons for one day before he jetted off again

00:39:55.320 for another junket into the States.

00:39:58.240 It's amazing to me how he's still doing well at the polls.

00:40:03.300 Well, this European Union thing, I have been getting a lot of feedback on that.

00:40:07.960 I do think that was one of the misplays, at least.

00:40:09.900 One of the ones that, as you said, helps the independent side.

00:40:12.360 Because some of the people find if they were feeling a little of that elbows up and forever Canadian thought,

00:40:17.520 but they also, that means they want to be a sovereign nation of Canada.

00:40:22.120 And Carney's talking about trading it for obligations to a group of nations that's even farther away and culturally different than the United States.

00:40:30.600 That's not endearing some people.

00:40:32.080 Well, look, if you don't like supply management, you're certainly not going to like the way the Europeans do their agriculture.

00:40:39.800 The whole thing is supply management right across the continent.

00:40:44.320 People aren't happy with it over there.

00:40:46.560 So this is...

00:40:47.580 Well, it's part of it.

00:40:48.120 Some of those European countries won't be any more thrilled with Canada's supply management system than the Americans are.

00:40:53.520 And that sacred, you know, to use the pun, sacred cow, could suddenly be on the market again if he's trying to cut deals in Europe.

00:41:00.660 that their producers aren't going to be happy with it as you know we already have a trade deal with

00:41:04.820 europe we certainly don't under mr harper yeah yeah he's a trip over to brussels several times

00:41:11.140 on that one i guess the what slows things down is there's a number of european countries who

00:41:15.540 are members of the european union who have not ratified it yet i mean the big ones have but

00:41:19.540 or well france hasn't so uh if they haven't ratified it yet they never will no so maybe

00:41:26.180 that's, maybe Mr. Carney has a special

00:41:28.520 charm in his bilingualism that persuades

00:41:32.040 the French to put their thumb on the,

00:41:36.280 I doubt it. 0.98

00:41:37.660 Let's see what happens.

00:41:38.800 I mean, again, how much influence would

00:41:40.060 we have as this associate member anyways?

00:41:42.140 What does that mean?

00:41:42.900 We talked about it before.

00:41:43.560 Is it a little kiddie table in the corner

00:41:45.340 for Canada in Brussels on the edge of

00:41:47.940 their chamber?

00:41:50.720 Or how does this even work?

00:41:51.480 Well, you know, maybe I should save this

00:41:54.360 for my parting shop.

00:41:55.440 But look, if Europe didn't go to war to defend Ukraine, what makes anybody in Canada think that they are going to help us secure our Arctic if our position there is ever challenged?

00:42:11.900 Yeah, that's another one with working on a northern end and bigger things than NATO and wherever we're going.

00:42:18.520 What a mire.

00:42:20.460 Well, we're getting on to that time towards parting shots.

00:42:23.140 Did you have another one in the can?

00:42:24.700 Well, if you let Dave go first, I'm going to probably think of something.

00:42:28.120 You're going to talk about a conservative leader.

00:42:31.420 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. Hear this, hear this, hear this.

00:42:36.820 The media are full of speculation about the future of Pierre Polyoeuvre,

00:42:41.960 leader of the Conservative Party, Her Majesty's Royal Opposition.

00:42:46.460 I would put it to you that the media will always do that,

00:42:49.620 but the conservatives should not.

00:42:51.680 they should they should get behind the leader the present situation would be the same whoever

00:42:58.880 occupied that position there is it's not like there is something that mr polier ought to be

00:43:06.580 doing that somebody else would be doing and it would be making a difference there may come a

00:43:12.400 time to assess his leadership but the time is not now you got to give mr carney time to

00:43:17.820 basically expose his weaknesses

00:43:20.720 and then it will be a very different

00:43:22.760 thing. So I would just say

00:43:24.360 conservatives lay off the leader.

00:43:26.760 Had a huge rally in Ontario

00:43:28.860 on the weekend, thousands of people.

00:43:30.940 So I'm not alone.

00:43:32.460 No.

00:43:33.460 What do you got, Dave? 1.00

00:43:34.900 The lunatic Trump has just invited 1.00

00:43:37.700 the greater lunatic Putin 1.00

00:43:39.960 to the G20 meeting 0.97

00:43:41.400 in Miami.

00:43:44.360 I think it's coming up in October.

00:43:46.260 Absolute disgrace. 0.98

00:43:47.820 putin should not be let anywhere near this uh this meeting and if canada had any balls they would 0.99

00:43:54.860 boycott uh as it's been said if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle canada growing a set won't be 0.87

00:44:01.740 happening anytime soon i think though well i bet you stephen harper would have probably 0.91

00:44:06.380 at least not been happy about it no probably isn't all right it was on his watch the g8 became the g7

00:44:13.900 And it was Putin that we dropped, not just some other hard-to-pronounce Russian name.

00:44:21.660 Well, we'll see what happens at that one.

00:44:23.760 Okay, well, then I'll just close off with, I saw that.

00:44:26.060 And the Western Standard, of course, has a story on it.

00:44:27.800 The Calgary Police Service put out their consent awareness day to remind everybody that if a woman says no, you shouldn't molest her.

00:44:35.900 Most people have already been raised on that in the modern Western world and know this already.

00:44:40.820 They don't need a consent awareness week for it.

00:44:42.620 I mean, there's certainly some perverts who don't

00:44:44.280 understand that on every group, but I see the CPS

00:44:47.500 went to the trouble of putting that into a whole

00:44:49.400 number of different languages, as if perhaps

00:44:51.500 there's people of different cultures who are

00:44:52.760 having a bigger problem with understanding the

00:44:55.020 female consents required than others.

00:44:57.360 I guess, uh, I'll thank the Calgary Police

00:45:00.360 Service for their proactive approach to it,

00:45:02.960 but it kind of exposes a deeper problem.

00:45:04.740 But I think the Brits did the same thing a

00:45:06.700 couple of weeks ago.

00:45:07.420 Somebody over there was sending me, look what 1.00

00:45:10.260 given out you know government handbooks please do not rape women yeah you know quit growing the 1.00

00:45:14.660 blonde chicks guys we don't like that i think it might need some stronger action than that 1.00

00:45:19.380 oh well as i'll note it anyways all right guys well that's the time we've got dave nigel thank

00:45:26.100 you very much and thank everybody else out there for tuning in this week again make sure to subscribe

00:45:33.140 on those social media channels read the western standard every day the stories are breaking in

00:45:37.140 and they're constant and right now it's free you can't get a better deal than that those who've

00:45:40.980 been subscribing and supporting already thank you very much we really do appreciate it this is how

00:45:45.520 we can continue to get that content out there and get the stories as they're breaking so thanks for

00:45:50.080 tuning in tonight and we will have a whole new thing a list of things to break down and dissect

00:45:55.380 for you next week at this time

00:46:07.140 We'll see you next time.

Western Standard - September 24, 2026

Did David Eby call the election too soon？

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